hardy boys fan fiction

MY BROTHER'S GIFT

hardy boys nancy drew fan fiction

by

CQB

Chapter 7

hardy boys fan fiction

THE CHAPTERS

INTRO

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

“The Secret Passage”  

The security guards at the museum unlocked the supply room door.  I hoped that as soon as the door was open, Joe would be sitting in there, waiting for us to find him.  

I knew he wasn’t as soon as Dad peered inside.  The police shined their flashlights, but Joe wasn’t there.  

“He must have been in here,” said one of the officers holding the black German shepherd.  “The dogs definitely found his scent here.”

The dog strained against the leash, trying to get deeper into the supply room.  

My dad frowned and rubbed his chin.  That was what Joe always called, ‘Dad’s thinking look’.  I bit my lip, wishing I could read Dad’s mind and know what he was thinking just then.  

“Officer,” Dad finally said, “Let the dog inside.  See what he does.”  

The officer looked at the Police Chief.  Chief Fred Neel nodded and the officer let the black dog go into the supply closet.  

“This is strange, Sir,” the officer stated a few minutes later.  “Rocky is scratching at the back wall like crazy.”  They took the dog out and tried the same thing with the tan German shepherd.  The tan dog, named Lizzy, did the same thing.  

“Let me have a look,” Dad insisted after both dogs were taken out into the hallway outside the men’s room.  I kept hold of Dad’s hand and went in with him.  

Dad started knocking on the wall with his knuckles.  He knocked several places, and then started feeling the wall with his finger tips.  

“This is a fake wall,” Dad announced, and I was so proud of Dad at that moment.  The Chief came in behind Dad and tapped the wall a bit.  

“You’re right,” he agreed.  “Is there a catch somewhere to open a secret door?”  

“Haven’t found one,” Dad answered.  

“Napper, Johnson,” Chief Neel called out.  “Get an axe from the car.  We’ll chop through the wall.”  

In minutes, Dad and I were back in the restroom while the police chopped through the supply room wall.  The Chief appeared and motioned for Dad to come on back inside.  I, of course, went with him.  

“Any idea where this leads?” Dad asked peering into a dark hallway.  

“We’ll get more flashlights and take one of the dogs in,” Chief Neel suggested.  Dad nodded his approval and the police rushed to get the extra equipment.  

Dad walked me back into the restroom area.  “I think you should go back now, Frank.  I’m not sure what we’ll find in there and it could be very dangerous.”  

“Dad, please!” I begged, “I need to be there when you find Joe!  I can’t explain it, but I know Joe will need me!”  

Dad got that ‘thinking’ look again.  “Wait here for a minute,” he finally said, “I’ll be right back.”  

True to his word, Dad was back a few seconds later with Chief Neel and another officer.  

“Frank,” Dad began, “the only way you can come is to obey me and Officer Fritz completely.”  He nodded toward the young police man.  “Officer Fritz is going to be near the end of the line,” Dad continued.  “You will stay with him unless I call you to come up and join me at the head of the line.  Do you understand?”  

“Yes, Sir,” I said and took hold of Officer Fritz’s hand.   

“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” Chief Neel stated angrily.  “You’ve got a child missing, yet you allow this one to tag along.  We have no idea what the tunnel is or where it leads.”  

“Actually,” a new voice interrupted.  “It’s probably an old passage to the subway.”  

We all looked at the newcomer.  It was a woman who looked older than my mom, but not as old as my Nana.  

“I’m Barb Fairly,” she said.  “I’m the assistant to the administrator of the museum.  When I was walking by, one of the officers mentioned a tunnel behind the wall.  I remembered when I first started working here, an old woman on the janitorial staff told me about the tunnels.”  

The woman paused, but then continued, “There used to be halls and stairwells that connected to the old subway system.  When the new subway system was build and installed back in the seventies, many of the old passageways were sealed off.”  

She flipped her thumb toward the supply room.  “All the entrances were covered over.  You can’t access the new system from the museum at all.  I’m sure this will lead to one of the old subway entrances.”  

Dad looked at the Chief and said, “We know one thing for sure; Joe didn’t just wander down in the old subway system by himself.  Someone is behind my son’s disappearance.”  

“All the more reason this one should stay put here,” Chief Neel stated, nodding his head in my direction.  I looked up at Dad, hoping he wouldn’t change his mind about me going.  I gripped Officer Fritz’s hand a bit tighter, too.  

“Frank will do as he has been told,” Dad assured the police chief.  Dad looked at me and gave me a quick wink.   

Soon we were moving through the dark tunnel.  All the flashlights cast strange shadows on the narrow, dirty walls.  Voices carried loudly and once in a while, I could pick out Dad’s voice among the others I heard.  

“What’s that noise?” I quietly asked Officer Fritz.  There was a rumbling sound that seemed to make the walls shake.  

“The subway trains,” he answered.  “The subway runs just on the other side of the museum.  We’re probably right beside it now.”  

The dog, Rocky, was leading the way and he knew where Joe had gone.  It amazed me that a dog could tell where my brother was by his smell.  

I sniffed my own jacket sleeve.  All I could smell was the fabric softener Mom used when she washed our clothes.  I wondered if I had a different smell from Joe, and figured I must, or the dog would be sniffing at me.  

I decided I’d like to read up on that.  If I could sniff like a dog sniffs, maybe I would be some kind of super-detective.  I could track down criminals with my nose.  

I smiled to myself as I pictured Joe and me sniffing around on our hands and knees, trying to catch a crook.  

My daydream was suddenly interrupted.  The whole line of police stopped at the piercing sound that echoed down the tunnel.  

I knew the sound and my heart beat faster.  That was Joe and he was in trouble.

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